I lost my watch yesterday.

I lost my watch yesterday. It must have fallen out of my bag on the mountain, probably when I took my camera out. I’d put it in there to protect it from the rain.

The loss is bothering me more than I understand.

I used it a lot. I wake up in the darkness a lot these days, and knowing if I’ve been asleep five minutes or five hours seems to matter to me at that point. I will need to know the time in the weeks and months to come, as I check schedules and arrange transport. On a bus or train in a foreign and unknown country, if I know the length of the trip I know when to start watching for my stop. Without that I will be more vulnerable. I fell asleep on the train today and had no way of knowing if I’d passed my stop.

Is that why?

They were unsure about approaching the bag of litter I’d collected.

I’ve had that watch for a long time. I replaced the battery in Prague in 2008. I replaced it again in Guayaquil in 2012. I’ve looked at it in the middle of the night an uncountable number of times, and it has woken me up for planes, appointments, classes more often than I can imagine. My first real love gave me that watch. In college, I think.

Is that why?

Or is it that right now, when nearly everything I own on this earth fits into a 40 liter backpack, have the things I have left become more precious? Is that it?

Is it that right now, when I have lost so much…one more familiar item seems too much.

12 thoughts on “I lost my watch yesterday.”

It is sad that you have lost your watch when it is so important to you. Maybe you are supposed to reflect on the memories attached to the clock.

Love for one another is the most precious thing people own. Maintain focus on your heart for there are those you love. Then go and buy yourself a cheap watch and be glad that you are able to plan your days ahead.

It is sort of ironic and appropriate that I lost something to do with time, isn’t it? As if vagabondery wasn’t enough of a reminder that the future is unknowable! And you’re right, I look forward to, and feel grateful for, having the days ahead to plan, good point!

I understand this feeling. I try to stay pretty light on with my possessions (though haven’t gotten as light as you yet). Leaving most of my stuff behind after the Japanese earthquake definitely changed my perspective on owning piles of stuff. But there was one cheap, but cute, necklace my mum gave me, which I wore all the time, that I lost one day while travelling. Still haunts me 😦

That makes me feel better, that I’m not the only one, thank you. I thought I was so unattached to possessions, and it’s not like this wrecked me, but the irritation and disappointment were stronger and lasted longer than I expected. Silly to see an item as a friend…but it can happen.

Indeed! I actually planned to leave something behind in every country on this trip, but for some reason that particular item was more disappointing to lose than I thought. Maybe that’s exactly the one I needed to lose then. Now I just need to find something with at least one alarm, and that doesn’t feature Hello Kitty…

There is so much going on in this post. Practical reality, traveler philosophy, a touch of poetry. . . Something about this also resonates with me, and I am close to tears of empathy. Things, memories, emotions, symbols and dependency all conspire to compose a moment that spans eternity.